Old paper any good?

[mrtoml]

I am thinking of getting into the darkroom again after a long break. I went down there today (it’s in a basement) and amazingly everything still seems to work. LPL 7700, RH Designs Analyser, clock, safelight etc. Trays need cleaning though...

There is also a lot of paper down there which hasn’t been touched for about 6 or 7 years (RC and Fibre). Some of it is unopened. The temperature down there is not high but it is quite damp. Is there any point in bothering with it or should I just bin the whole lot?

I presume all the chemistry should just be trashed as well.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[kram]

Paper is expensive. I use my old paper for test prints. Some of it acted as preflashed paper so exposute times less. Setting up my darkroom again after a crappy divorce and move to a much smaller house. My paper will be in excess of 5 years old. Once back into the swing of things by fresh paper.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

6-7 years is lol. If stored properly. It means without been into the light. Even RC is going to be good.
FB is good for 50+ years.
Chemistry if in powders is good. PhotoFlo is good. And stop bath, washing aid. Even concentrated fixer might be good. Not to mention hc110 and Rodinal. I used old Tmax developer as well.

 

[Hern]

I'm currently in sort of a similar predicament, lots of pretty old-ish (I'm thinking a decade old) RC paper that I'm having to work with. Preflashed paper eh? I might try thinking of them that way, I've been mostly treating them as potentially fogged paper, so a lot less care with their printing.

 

[Prest_400]

Some things are tough and never will be killed.
It will depend on the paper but I have learnt printing mostly on undated (15 year old?) Ilford MGIV RC. My photo club was donated rolls of this paper from a school and most of it printed quite well. I also found 3 boxes of RC (MGIV and Forte RC) which print well, just a slight fog on the Forte, which is surely from before 2007 when Forte went under.
Test and try.

Fiber paper I haven't had such good luck. There is also a bunch of it in the darkroom and most is from slightly to quite fogged. MGIV could be good and I used off the last sheets from a leftover pack that could as well be 10+ years old.

If anyone knows how to date a batch of Ilford paper, I can get back with more concrete age.

Very old paper can be golden for Lith printing. There are heaps of quite old paper (some had 1969-1970 written on the box and old logos) which I don't know how would print normally but the formulas are good for lith.
Oh yes, Orwo paper surprisingly quite low on fog. Figure out that East Germans made fog resistant paper!

 

[nikon_sam]

Before throwing anything out, try adding Moersch Restrainer Neutral in your developer to reduce fogging, if you see any...

 

[mrtoml]

Thank you all for the sage advice. I will try the various papers at least to practice. I also plan on doing a lot of lith printing so maybe it will turn out very well...